Efeito do nível de energia metabolizável da dieta no desempenho e metabolismo energético de frangos de corte

The objective of this work was to study the effect of dietary ME levels on the performance and the energy metabolism of male broilers on growing phase, from 22 to 43 days old. Two hundred and eighty-eight broilers were ramdomly assigned to three energy levels (3,050; 3,200 and 3,350 kcal/kg) and three feeding levels (ad libitum, 75% and 50% ad libitum), with four replicates of eight birds, to determine the energy maintenance requirements and the energy efficiency utilization. The method used was the comparative slaughter. Twelve birds were sacrificed in the beginning of trial to determine the initial body composition and 144 birds were used to determine the AMEn of diets according to ME levels and feeding levels. The dietary ME levels affected the ME intake and consequently in retained body energy (RE) and heat production (HP). The maintenance metabolizable energy requirements were: 131, 141 and 132 kcal/kg of W 0.75/day for 3,350; 3,200 and 3,050 ME/kg, respectively. The highest ME level promoted better performance of the birds, however, the medium ME level provide better values of efficiency for protein deposition and for fat deposition, consequently, lower body fat composition, showing better carcass quality.Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq